Two Tax Cuts Dropped from GOP Healthcare Overhaul

July 12, 2017

In an effort to appease holdovers in the GOP healthcare overhaul, Senate Republicans have dropped two proposed tax cuts on high earners, Bloomberg reports.

The revised bill sent to the Congressional Budget Office will no longer eliminate the 3.8% tax on net investment income nor the 0.9% Medicare surtax on individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning more than $250,000, GOP senators tell the news service.

Keeping the taxes in place could boost the government’s ability to cover Medicaid recipients and other programs favored by more moderate Republicans, Bloomberg writes.

The two taxes bring close to $231 billion to government coffers over ten years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates cited by the news service.

The revision, which does not eliminate any of the other proposed tax cuts, is in response to opposition from a half-dozen Republicans opposed to the combination of big tax cuts and reductions on health spending as proposed in the previous version of the GOP healthcare bill, according to Bloomberg.

News of the revision comes as Republicans delay their summer recess by two weeks to mid-August, the news service writes.